TEXAS OFFICE OF PUBLIC UTILITY COUNSEL AND MCI ANNOUNCE COMPROMISE PLAN TO RESOLVE DALLAS' AREA CODE DILEMMA

DALLAS, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Office of the Public Utility Counsel (OPC) and MCI today announced a compromise plan to resolve the need for a new area code within the Dallas 214 area code region. Their approach filed with the Texas Public Utility Commission takes into account both city boundaries and the technical constraints of the local telephone network.

OPC's and MCI's plan would draw area code boundaries based upon which city has the most customers served by the phone company's different central offices. While Southwestern Bell (SWB) has over 40 central offices in the Dallas area, only 11 are affected by their plan.

"For months, local officials have wrestled with the problem of how to introduce a new area code in Dallas area," said Neal Larsen, MCI's director of state regulatory and governmental affairs for the southern region. "We believe this plan ensures the least amount of customer confusion while promoting competition for local telephone services."

"The exploding consumer demand for new telecommunication services promises a dizzying array of choices and products for Texas consumers," said Suzi Ray McClellan, Public Counsel. "The Office of Public Utility Counsel, which represents residential and small commercial ratepayers, believes this compromise plan will preserve the communities of interest in the Dallas and Houston areas while promoting competition and eliminating any unnecessary customer confusion and inconvenience."

Here's how the OPC/MCI proposal solution would work in Dallas. The City of Richardson's telephone exchange, for example, serves a majority of Richardson customers and small number of Dallas residents. Under the joint proposal, Richardson customers and those Dallas residents served by the Richardson exchange would switch to the 972 area code.

Likewise the Addison exchange serves a majority of Dallas customers and a small number of Addison residents. In this instance, these Dallas and Addison customers would retain their 214 area code. The remaining Addison customers served by another central office would receive the 972 area code. Overall, most customers within the city boundaries of Dallas would keep their 214 code, while customers in surrounding areas would get a new 972.

The OPC's and MCI's plan is based on a geographic split solution which literally splits an existing area code region along geographic boundaries. It differs greatly from SWB's "overlay" proposal which would completely ignore current geographic boundaries by overlaying a new area code on top of the 214 code.

The SWB proposal would create customer confusion because Dallas residents would not be able to identify which area code to use even if they knew where they are calling, whether its across the street or across town. Furthermore, all customers would be required to dial 10 or more digits regardless of which area code they are calling.

An overlay approach is also anti-competitive because it would force residential and business customers to change their telephone number when switching to a new telephone provider. Recent Gallup polls indicate that most customers would not change companies if they have to change phone numbers.

Endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), geographic splits represent the traditional approach to adding new telephone numbers to an area. Across the country, it is seen as the best solution to serve the needs of both business and residential customers.

MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's largest and fastest growing diversified communications companies. With annual revenue of more than $13 billion, MCI offers consumers and businesses a broad portfolio of services including long distance, wireless, local access, paging, Internet software and access, information services, outsourcing, business software, advanced global telecommunications services, and music distribution and merchandising.

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/CONTACT: Bernie Tylor, 202-887-2474, or Dan Greenfield, 202-887-2750, both of MCI/

(MCIC)

CO: MCI; Texas Office of the Public Utility Counsel ST: Texas IN: TLS SU:

DC -- DCTU021 -- 5371 01/23/96 13:17 EST